


A Real Smile

by daphnerunning



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-08
Updated: 2011-11-08
Packaged: 2017-10-25 20:58:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,023
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/274728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daphnerunning/pseuds/daphnerunning
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To most people, Edward is doing well.</p><p>Most people don't see what Ivan sees.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Real Smile

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a prompt on t-and-b-anon.livejournal.com
> 
> Probably a lot darker than OP intended.

Edward is doing well. Everyone agrees on that.

He laughs when Nathan and Antonio joke around, treats Pao-Lin like a little sister, and waves at the crowds without being asked. He fits in better than Ivan does, most of the time. Only a handful of people know about his past, and they’re (mostly) nice enough not to bring it up. In private, to Ivan, they confide, “I can’t believe he spent those years in prison. You’d never know it to look at him.”

No, they wouldn’t.

Because they don’t see it when Edward screams himself awake in the middle of the night because a blanket got tangled around his leg. 

 

*

 

Ivan was awake in a second, in time to duck when Edward’s hand came flying at him, backed by the corded muscle in his shoulder. “Edward! Stop it! You’re fine!”

When Edward’s eyes opened, dark purple and full of panic, Ivan wasn’t sure if he was fine after all. 

“I’m sorry,” Edward rasped, clenching his hands tightly on the sheet. “I could have hurt you. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“Don’t be stupid.” Ivan crawled back into bed, reaching for Edward’s shoulder. “Are you--”

“Don’t touch me!” The words came out harsh and high-pitched, and Edward looked away. “Sorry. Not now, okay?”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Ivan didn’t want to hear about it, not really. 

Instead of answering, Edward rolled over on top of him, kissing, biting at his lips, shoving his tongue down Ivan’s throat. He grabbed Ivan’s wrists, held them above his head with bruising force.

 _Yes,_ Ivan told him silently, arching up into his touch. _I like it. I want you. This is safe. You’re safe. No one here is going to hurt you._

He wished he could say the same for himself, but Edward wasn't _too_ rough, and Ivan was still stretched and slick from earlier. Edward held his eyes as fingernails gouged into his wrists, as he took Ivan hard and fast and without care, until he buried himself deep inside with a groan. 

He only let Ivan hold him afterward, trembling and shaking, whispering, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s not you, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

 

*

 

Edward is a Hero now, with everything he ever wanted. The crowds cheer when he shows up, he has a fan club, and he’s rising steadily in the ranks over the first season. He’s a good Hero, a popular Hero, just as Ivan always knew he would be.

That’s why no one understands why Ivan clenches his fists so tightly when Edward steps through a bank vault, why he’s too distracted by Sandstorm’s heroics to photobomb, why he freezes when Edward is anywhere near a gun.

“That was all a long time ago,” Blue Rose says with a smile. “He’s obviously over it.”

She doesn’t see that Edward buys flowers almost as often as Keith does.

 

*

 

Ivan shifted into Barnaby before entering the cemetery. Edward would only tell Ivan not to worry, to stop being such a mother-hen all the time. He placed the perfunctory wreath on the Brooks headstone, then nodded at the kneeling figure nearby. “Hello.”

Edward gave him a fake smile. Barnaby wouldn’t have been able to tell, but Ivan knew what a real smile from Edward looked like. “Hi. Your parents?”

Ivan nodded. “Yours?”

“Yeah,” Edward lied. Cecilia Fulton’s grave was clean and well-tended, most often by the man who killed her. It wasn’t every victim of a random accident who had a Hero bringing her flowers every few days. 

“I’ll leave you alone, shall I?”

Edward said nothing for a long minute. Then, softly, “Do you think they know? Who visits the grave, who still cares?”

“I hope so.” 

That night, Ivan said nothing as they watched TV and a bottle of whiskey slowly disappeared, glass by glass.

 

*

 

The crowds cheer as Sandstorm flashes a white smile, the cover of next month’s CosmoStern. 

“I have to say,” Ivan hears one of Edward’s sponsors saying to another, “I had my doubts. He’s really pulled through for us. Kid’s a natural.”

Ivan’s the only one that knows how fake that smile is.

 

*

 

“Hey. Can you change into someone for me?”

Ivan nods before he thinks about it. “Sure. Who?” It’s not the most unusual thing for Edward to request. Heck, he always considered it to be one of the only things he brought to the table as a lover.

“You.”

“Huh?”

Shyly, Edward handed over a photograph. “This you.”

Ivan’s heart sank as he looked down at himself, nervous but smiling, with one of Edward’s arms around him. One long strand of Edward’s hair was caught in his Academy uniform’s zipper. He wanted to ask why, whether Edward was going to punish him for the things he should have done back then, but he didn’t. He changed.

Then he saw Edward’s real smile, not quite as wide as the one he gave under his Sandstorm mask, turned up at the corners of his lips. “Come on,” he said, patting the couch next to him. “Let’s watch one of those animes you like.”

It was just like back in the Academy, except that Ivan couldn’t run his hands through Edward’s hair. Except that Edward was so much bigger than him now, broadened and strengthened from years of using the prison gym. Except that sometimes when Edward ran his hand through Ivan’s hair, Ivan couldn’t help but think of how close that hand was to his throat, how easy it would be for Edward to take his revenge.

 

*

 

Maybe sometimes Edward has anger issues, like when he puts his fist through the wall after his basketball team loses the playoffs. Maybe Ivan’s never sure if he’ll be able to get a full night’s sleep, or if he’ll be woken up halfway through because Edward is whimpering, or screaming in his sleep. Maybe Ivan has to teach him all the things most adults figured out years ago, like using public transportation and balancing the budget and figuring out how to shop for groceries.

But sometimes, just sometimes, Edward gives him a real smile. 

For now, it’s enough.


End file.
